Out of Respect
by Catnip2
Summary: Severus Snape makes a promise to a dear friend, and intends to keep it. Why Dumbledore trusts Snape.
1. Chapter 1

"**Out of Respect"**

**By: Catnip2**

**

* * *

Not far down the hallway a collection of healers and patients sang a happy melody in several different keys. Even in the small private room leading off of the Janus Thickey ward, it was possible to tell that many singers did not even know the words of the song. The smell of pine needles, cookies, and several kinds of liquor filled St. Mungo's Hospital of Magical Maladies and Injuries.**

**It was the undoubting atmosphere of Christmas Eve. **

**The Janus Thickey ward was relatively silent, as anyone who could enjoy the festivities had gone to do so, save one rather uninterested man. Despite the happy feeling in the air that came so rarely to the hospital, the dark haired, greasy wizard sat in his chair, as grumpy and unpleasant as ever. In fact, the cheerfulness seemed only to increase his nastiness. While turning the page of his rather uninteresting book, Severus Snape glanced briefly at his reason for being here. **

**A woman lay silent and still in the bed by which Snape was sitting. She was a sickly pale with hollow cheeks and a rather sunken expression. It was usual for anyone who saw her to think she was dead, and not merely unconscious. Snape often thought it himself, but knew he was never that lucky. She was by no means an attractive looking woman, but her features were delicate and gave her a rather innocent appearance. If anyone ever thought of her as innocent, however, a look to her left forearm quickly banished such ideas. **

**Snape noticed the visible and familiar skull and snake, and mentally cursed whoever had placed her so it would show. With a frown he picked up her wrist and hid her arm under the blanket that covered her. The uncommon touch momentarily brought her voice back to his ears, a very distant memory that never seemed to go away.**

"**He wouldn't have wanted this!" she had yelled so long ago. She had pleaded with him, and he had waited too long to listen. Snape chanced a look at the woman's face. She had aged 14 years in that bed, but he could still see the little girl he had once known her as. **

* * *

"Now, as anyone who actually did the homework would know, red caps are particularly nasty things, that love beating people to death," began a wizard with an odd smile over his face. He stood at the front of a classroom, looking over the note taking students with almost a look of pride. His small, round glasses reflected the early afternoon sun and he twitched his nose characteristically, brushing his large salt and pepper moustache over his lip. His kind eyes fell briefly on one greasy haired Slytherin student who looked back at him, waiting for the man to continue.

"In fact," the wizard obliged, "red caps get their name was soaking their hats in their victims' blood. Now, you can't expect a red cap to just jump on your back and try and pound your skull in, though they may, actually… you can expect any number of things from them, including rock throwing, or boulder-" he stopped briefly, "do you find something about skull bashing amusing, Mr. Potter?"

A boy in the back looked up immediately, shoving a parchment under the table as he did so. Two of the three other people at the table with him fell quiet immediately, the third not having been saying anything to begin with.

"No, Professor Bisset…" James Potter said. The 14-year-old Severus Snape turned around in his chair and sneered at the bespectled boy.

"Well then," Bisset said with a slight shrug, "maybe you'd find five points from Gryffindor more to your liking," he twitched his nose again.

"Not really…" Potter said rather casually.

"Oh? How about ten?" Bisset asked, a small smile still on his face, as if he was genuinely trying to please the boy. This time James decided against saying anything and kept quiet. Snape turned back around in his chair with a grin, catching the face briefly of the girl he happened to sit next to. She had long, black hair that hid her face rather completely, so usually only the tip of her curved nose could be seen. In this moment, however, Snape saw her round eyes that, to him, conveyed a sense of cluelessness. How Snape had ever come to sit next to her he did not know. Satisfied with James's attention, Bisset went on.

"Red caps have also been known to hurl boulders off of mountain tops and castle towers at the unsuspecting. How they accomplish this, who knows? Red caps fall under the category _my_ Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher referred to as 'little people,' which included goblins and dwarves. Her things were always mysteriously vanishing from Gringotts, as you can imagine. Now, who can tell me where red caps most love to live?"


	2. Chapter 2

**There was a knock on the door leading from Ward 49 to the private room, but before Snape could tell them to go away the door opened and a rather festive looking Gilderoy Lockhart stumbled in. He had a strand of garland slung around his neck like a scarf and smelled distinctively like brandy, which he carried a glass of.**

"**Would Germy like to come dance?" Gilderoy mumbled happily. Snape's lips curled and he wanted desperately to curse the man into oblivion. He stood and walked over to Gilderoy until he was only a few inches. Gilderoy looked at the thoroughly displeased man and gulped audibly. **

"**Maybe later…" he practically squeaked and ran off. Snape made sure to give the door an extra loud 'bang' as he closed it. Before sitting back in his chair he looked again at the woman and scoffed.**

"**Dance!" he said disdainfully, again reassured that Lockhart was an idiot. **

* * *

Severus Snape had never felt uncomfortable about knocking on Professor Bisset's office door. The older wizard had always welcomed him and at least feigned interest in whatever Snape wanted to discuss. For three years, ever since Bisset had taken thirty points from Gryffindor when he found Sirius Black hexing Snape their first year, Snape had almost trusted his professor. Bisset seemed to Snape to be a knowledgeable, decent, and quite a fair wizard, and it didn't hurt that Bisset seemed to appreciate Snape's interest and value his abilities. So, it was with a generally hopeful demeanor that Snape knocked on the office door, hoping to go over some facts on dementors with his Dark Arts professor. Several moments passed and Snape knocked again, and then again, and again. Finally, getting rather upset, Snape pressed his ear to the door to try and find any signs of movement. He heard music. It was upbeat and moved rather quickly. Confused and feeling defiant after being ignored, Snape opened the door anyway.

"You can go faster than that!" he heard Bisset's voice laugh, drastically different than the feminine voice that was singing.

"Only if I want to fall down!" a girl's voice laughed back. With the door fully open, Snape found himself looking at Professor Bisset holding the hand of a girl spinning in circles below it. After half a dozen turns Bisset looked up and saw the boy standing in his door way and smiled at him.

"Hello Severus," he said warmly. This got the girl's attention and she stopped spinning. She wobbled a bit trying to stand still and face the door, so Bisset wrapped his arms around her and held her straight. Snape was visually surprised to see the clueless looking black haired girl who had never seemed to say a word. She looked just as surprised to see him. Professor Bisset was not oblivious to any of this.

"Come in," he said and Snape entered, closing the door behind him. "I trust you knew Germaine?" Bisset asked him. Snape's eyes went from the girl to the man, still rather wide in surprise. He had not expected to see this man he admired twirling a student. The girl, Germaine, quickly got over her surprise and her face went rather blank and sad.

"Should I get some tea?" she whispered to Professor Bisset, but Snape heard her anyway.

"Oh that sounds like a good idea. Would you like some tea, Severus?" he asked with a smiled. Snape shook his head, he'd much rather have an explanation, but wasn't about to ask for that.

"Well, I'd love some tea, thank you Germaine," he told the girl and she was off and out of sight. Bisset motioned for Snape to take a seat and the young Slytherin did. Bisset sat across from him.

"So, what's on you mind?" Bisset asked smiling.

"She's a student!" Snape found himself yelling unexpectedly. Bisset _had_ asked. The idea of Professor Bisset being in anyway, unprofessional, with a female student had Snape absolutely aghast. He was feeling disappointed to say the least. Bisset simply looked at him calmly.

"She's also my daughter, Severus," Bisset told him. There was silence for a few moments, and Snape collected himself.

"Daughter?" he asked to clarify. The wizard nodded.

"Germaine Bisset," he said. Snape searched through his mind. Surely he had heard that before. He was a little preoccupied at the sorting ceremony, but in the three years since he _must_ have heard the girl's last name. He had just never paid her any mind before.

"Oh, I, um…" Snape felt rather silly, and he didn't like that at all. The uncomfortable feeling was broken by Germaine walking over to them with a tray carrying a teapot and two overturned tea cups. She set it wordlessly on the small table between then and turned one of the cups right side up and poured her father some tea. Professor Bisset thanked her and she smiled back. A glance at Snape quickly removed the smile and she turned and walked away. Snape felt rather like not opening his mouth and Bisset blew slightly on his tea to cool it off. There was the sound of a door closing and Bisset looked up at Snape.

"Her mother died just after Germaine was born. The birth left her weak and she contracted dragon pox…" Bisset explained, a look of sadness fell over him.

"Oh," was all Snape said. He'd really rather discuss the dark arts, but felt it was a bad time to mention dementors.

"So," Bisset said happily once again, "what did you come to talk about?"

"Red caps. Do you think they could have magic, like elves? Maybe that's how they move those boulders."


	3. Chapter 3

**Before Snape had realized he had fallen asleep, a knock on the door woke him up. He stood up with a snort stormed over toward the door.**

"**No one is dancing!" he bellowed as he opened it. Albus Dumbledore stood there, smiling his smile at him. **

"**A pity," Dumbledore said and wiggled his hips slightly. Snape frowned and walked away from the wizard, giving room for Dumbledore to enter the room and close the door behind him. Snape turned and crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall farthest from the door. He turned in time to see Dumbledore run the back of his hand over the woman's face and smile down at her. **

"**The healers say she's doing quite well," Dumbledore said, sitting in Snape's warm chair. Snape scoffed. **

"**Does she look 'quite well,' to you?" he said in an accusatory voice. Dumbledore looked again at the woman and smiled.**

"**She seems to have a bit more color," he said. **

"**She's exactly the same," Snape told him, resisting the urge to yell at him. This was Dumbledore, not some student. She wouldn't even be here if it weren't for him.**

**But if the old coot thought she was anything but a breathing corpse he had lost it. **

* * *

"Now I realize with the upcoming quidditch game many of you may not have had time to do the monstrous amount of reading I assigned you, and, since I intend to assign you a monstrous amount of reading tonight," Professor Bisset's class let out a low, collective moan, which made him smile, "I'm giving you a free period. But…" he warned his grinning students, "if I see anything not related to this class in front of you, the points will fly. Understood?"

The class responded with a variety of half-hearted 'yes, professor's and began opening their books and pieces of parchment. Snape, who had come at the top of his class in Defense for the previous five years, had done his reading and now found himself rather bored. If he didn't mind losing points for Slytherin he'd take out his copy of _Advanced Potion-Making_ and scribble a few things in it, but at the moment Slytherin was behind Gryffindor and he didn't want to increase that gap. He took out his Defense textbook and flipped through a few pages. Nothing he hadn't already read. He looked casually around the room and watched Professor Bisset walking around the room observing the students. When Bisset walked by Germaine—who now had a seat a few rows away from Snape—he patted her head slightly and she looked up at him with a smile.

Snape scoffed slightly to himself and returned his gaze to the pages of his book. The Defense teacher's own daughter hadn't even done the homework. Over the past few years Snape had paid more attention to Germaine Bisset, and didn't like any of what he had seen. She was a shy, quiet, slow, frightened little girl who never seemed to catch on to anything. How she could be Professor Bisset's daughter Snape couldn't figure out. And the way Bisset seemed to favor her above all others while Snape was smarter, cleverer, and more talented. Professor Bisset had seemed so proud when Germaine got two 'Outstanding's on her O.W.L.s, but only slightly pleased when Snape got _ten_. It didn't seem fair to Snape at all.

His bitter feeling was cut short when he felt a hand briefly touch his shoulder. He looked up and saw Professor Bisset's face smiling down at him.

"Nothing to do?" he asked in a whisper.

"I did my reading," Snape answered, making sure to do so in a normal voice so everyone would know.

"Have any other work to do?" Bisset still whispered. Snape shrugged.

"I suppose…"

"Well, you can go ahead and do it. I'd hate to see a student just sitting there…" Bisset twitched his nose. Snape nodded and immediately took out his copy of _Advanced Potion-Making_. Bisset gave him a smile and a nod and continued walking about the class. Feeling special, Snape looked over at Germaine who quickly turned her head back to her book.


	4. Chapter 4

**Snape and Dumbledore had fallen into only a brief silence before Dumbledore began to hum along with the merry singers down the hall. Snape grit his teeth and turned away from the old wizard. **

"**Oh!" Dumbledore said suddenly, "I almost forgot." He reached into his robes and brought out a small, wrapped gift. Snape looked at him, uncomfortable, he hated when people gave him gifts. Dumbledore, however, removed the woman's hand from where Snape had placed it and laid it down on top of the blanket, her palm and Dark Mark facing up. He set the small gift in her hand, and smiled at it.**

"**What in Merlin's name is _that_?" Snape demanded. The woman hadn't moved on her own free will in 14 years, and Dumbledore was giving her a Christmas gift?**

"**A trinket I found of her father's," Dumbledore said simply. Snape was instantly quiet and his face went slightly pale.**

"**Wh-what is it?" he asked, almost nervously.**

"**A moustache comb," Dumbledore said and chuckled slightly to himself. Snape rolled his eyes. **

* * *

As soon as he heard, Snape ran as quickly as he could to the Hospital Wing. He had a free period before Charms and heard rumors in the library that a professor had collapsed in the middle of a class. A meaningful threat of a first year Hufflepuff found out which one. Now he was running through the dark hallways, his footsteps and the sound of his bag thumping against his back echoed through the hallway. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't be. Not now, not him!

But as burst into the Hospital Wing, he knew it was. Even before the smell of bandages and medical potions reached him, Snape could hear Germaine's bitter tears.

"Mr. Snape!" Madam Pomfrey began to scold him, but he didn't really hear her. He just walked toward the bed Germaine was crying next to, his legs suddenly feeling like heavy weights. At the sound of Pomfrey's voice, Germaine turned around and saw him walking toward them. Her usually pale face was a bright pink and her eyes were swollen.

"Severus…" she said, almost as a plea for him to make it all go away. As far as he knew it was the first time she had ever said his name, but he didn't care. Her movement had given him view of Professor Bisset laying on the hospital bed. The wizard's skin looked pale and rather bluish, his chest raised and lowered as he struggled to breathe. Horror stricken, Snape turned to Germaine.

"What happened?" he demanded from her. She cringed slightly at the anger in his voice, and gripped her father's hand a little tighter.

"He-he just collapsed, during a class. I got called out of Divination. Pom-Pomfrey thinks it's…" she paused, the word caught in her throat, "serious…"

Snape felt a lump grow in his throat.

"How serious?"

"We'll be moving him to St. Mungo's as soon as we can," Madam Pomfrey said approaching them. Having realized Snape was, well, a friend, Pomfrey's voice had grown calm and gentle.

"I'm going with him," Germaine said, and Madam Pomfrey nodded.

"Me too!" Snape turned around and told her. Pomfrey looked a little surprised.

"Mr. Snape, you're not fam-"

"He's coming," Germaine told her more resolutely then she had ever said anything. The tone of her voice seemed to have surprised everyone in the room, as it suddenly fell very quiet, except for the sound of Bisset's difficult breathing.

"Severus…" the wizard managed to say weakly. With a haphazard shove, Snape pushed Germaine out of the way and took her place at the bedside.

"What Professor?" he asked as kindly as he could, which still came out rather cruel. Bisset raised his hand slightly and rested it on Snape's. The touch made Snape recoil slightly by nature.

"I always hoped," Bisset paused to take a breath, "that you would take care of her."

Snape could hear Germaine gasp slightly behind him. He looked into Bisset's eyes… they weren't smiling, or happy. They were desperate, they were pleading. It wasn't right.

"I-I will, Professor…" Snape promised. Bisset smiled at him, as warmly as he ever had. Germaine began to sob.


End file.
